


take me home (forever and ever)

by RedJumper



Series: lovers [2]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Multi, Murder (mention: for case)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:48:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25028002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedJumper/pseuds/RedJumper
Summary: Ziva will be sleeping on her desk using her hair as a pillow and Tim will most likely be nowhere to be found.
Relationships: Ziva David/Anthony DiNozzo/Timothy McGee
Series: lovers [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1812409
Kudos: 18





	take me home (forever and ever)

**Author's Note:**

> prompt from livejournal ncis five prompts - 4. Quote: “I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you.” ~ Roy Croft - december 2018  
> \- it mostly give me the idea by sits a good theme for the fic  
> dont own characters  
> title from taylor swift - lover  
> punuccis -futurama  
> whats with me and writing a lot more than i plan to.

It's been a long day. A really long day and Tony really hoped that Gibbs would make them interrogate the suspect tomorrow but no it had to be done tonight. 

So while the guy - a supply clerk that stabbed a petty officer to death - is busy being silent , as if they don't have the evidence already to convict him. While the clerk is trying to think up a plan to get himself out of being arrested. Tony thinks up his own plan - not for being arrested, been there done that got the fingerprints taken to prove it (multiple times, now) - but for tonight, later tonight. Once he's got the guy to confess - which is gonna be easy, once it's time - he's going to walk back to the bullpen and hopefully Gibbs will be the only one not there.

Ziva will be sleeping on her desk using her hair as a pillow as she always does when the team is forced to stay late. Tony will convince her that she's too tired to drive home and that he should take her. She'll give in when he tells her that she really can't afford another ticket and she'll complain but still get in his car. Then if he's lucky she'll fall asleep in the car and when they arrive at Tim’s apartment, she’ll be too tired to give her half-hearted protests. It's their routine - Ziva acts like she's making the world’s most difficult decision but after a nudge or two from Tony she’ll give in and admit a blanket nest is what she wants.

Tim is a wildcard on the other hand. He could still be on his computer or down in the lab or even autopsy. Tim is one of the most predictable people Tony knows - he always gets the same coffee order, always orders the same thing from Punucci’s (no matter how many Ziva tries to get him to change his order) and always without fail take Jethro on a 5 mile run away the park every Saturday - despite all that Tony can never tell where Tim goes when he leaves his desk. One minute Tony could be writing a report, then he thinks of something funny and looks up to tell Tim and he’s just not there. So he’ll turn to Ziva and of course she always knows where Tim disappears to. It’s one of the many things that makes them work - things Tony loses track of (wallet, phone, Tim), Ziva always seems to find. 

The supply clerk starts talking on and on about how he didn't do it, he had an alibi and he could never kill someone and Tony lets him. At least for a couple of minutes. The clerk stops pleading his innocence when Tony flips over the pictures he had placed upside down on the table when he first entered interrogation. The pictures which show security footage of the clerk stabbing petty officer Jack Walters in the neck. Tony then places paper and a pen on the table and the clerk keeps staring at the pictures, that is until he sighs and grabs the pen. After Tony leads him through the confession, he leaves interrogation to find Gibbs waiting for him outside observation. 

“Tell Ziva and McGee, you guys are free to go. Be in sharp tomorrow though, reports still need to be done.” 

He enters the bullpen to not only find Ziva but also Tim sleeping at her desk. He can imagine that Tim went over to help Ziva with writing up her witness report and then they got distracted and tired them out by talking. Ziva is in fact using her hair as a pillow but she's not sleeping on her desk. She's sleeping with her head on Tim’s shoulder, and he has his head tipped back and legs kicked up on Ziva’s desk. He could wake them. They would want him to wake them. But instead he grabs his phone - a brand new picture camera phone Tim convinced him to buy - out of his pocket to take a photo of the two of them. He tells himself it's for blackmail - but he also has a habit of lying to himself. He leans back on the edge of his desk so he's facing the sleeping members of his team. 

He needs to wake them up - especially Ziva, she gets grouchy if her accidental naps go on too long. Tim will at least be a semi functional human being and not require Tony’s very-close-but-not-quite begging for them all to share the same car.

Except they look so peaceful. It's not that the case today had been hard or long or even ranking in the top hundred worst crime scenes Tony has gone to but it was just plain thoughtless. Usually the motive is money or family. However, in this case, the petty officer just happened to be in the wrong place when the clerk decided now was a good time to act out a sudden violent thought. It reminded them all that yes, there were people that murdered for the hell of it and that sometimes there isn’t a deeper reason for it.  
Tony starts twirling his phone in his hand and then stops. He decides if he isn’t going to wake his partners up right now then he can at least make sure they're ready to leave. He goes over to Tim’s desk first, the computer is already shut down but there are still open files on the desk. Tony closes them, makes sure to keep all the documents in the right place (because Tim will panic if he opens it up tomorrow and thinks he’s lost something) and stores them in Tim’s desk drawer. He can’t exactly take Tim’s badge and gun out because that is a part of protocol even newbies don’t make. He however makes sure Tim’s bag has everything and is sitting on his desk to be picked up.

He deals with packing up his own stuff next, shutting down his computer and holstering his gun - his badge still clipped on from earlier. 

Since he can’t get behind Ziva’s desk with disturbing either of them, he finally commits to waking them up. 

First Tim (because waking up Ziva is never going to be a thing he enjoys). He walks up behind Ziva’s desk so he’s on the side Tim is on. He starts with a simple nudge to the shoulder but nothing happens so he instead goes with tugging gently on Tim’s ear. Tim slowly blinks awake, eyes having to readjust to harsh fluorescent lights. He gives Tony a sleepy smile and brings his arm up to brush some hair off of Ziva’s cheek.

Tony leans in to whisper in his ear. “Gibbs said we’re free to blow this popsicle stand so go grab your locked up goods and let me handle little miss sunshine here.”

Tim stands up slowly, removing Ziva's head from his shoulder and allowing it to softly fall against the back of her own chair. As he wheeling his chair back around Tony, he stops and whispers, “That almost sounded like your own language there. I like it but I wouldn’t let Ziva hear you call her that.”

“But I liked that movie.” Both men turn towards the tired voice. Ziva has sat up and is half glaring at them. There's still a strand of hair stuck to her face and a red mark from leaning against Tim on her cheek. She looks absolutely beautiful (and really he’ll say that no matter what she looks like.)

“You’re awake.”

“Timothy you are the one that woke me. I thought I told you not to let me fall asleep.”

Tim - who’s grabbed his bag and now staying back at Tony’s side - raises his up in a surrender-like gesture and says, “I wasn’t the one in interrogation.”

Tony turns to face him. “The guy needed to sign the confession. I’ll admit it took longer than I should have but you need to let some people sweat it out for a while, remember that Probies, it’s important.”

Tim and Ziva share the same look they do every time Tony calls them that - it’s a look that consists half of why-do-we-put-with-you and half of you're-an-idiot-but-you're-our-idiot, tony secretly loves that love.

Ziva stands up from her desk, bag on her back and a lot more alert of her surroundings than she was five minutes ago. On the way to the elevator she takes her car keys out of her pockets and Tony grabs them before she can even say anything about driving herself.

“Tony, give me back my keys.”

“No and the streets of D.C will thank me.” Tim chuckles at that and they share their Ziva's-driving-is-deadly-but-so-uniquely-her look.

“Timothy, tell him I’m good to drive.”

“Zee, you’re never good to drive.” And at one point Tim would've faltered at the glare Ziva throws him but now all he does is smile. “Also I was going to say I would drive you both back to my apartment.”

“You both were completely conked a minute ago. I’m driving in my own car - because it’s clearly the best - so no one is in danger of falling asleep at the wheel.”

“My apartment though?”

An “Of course.” comes from Tony.

And an “I miss Jethro.” from Ziva.

Both answers make Tim beam.

Tony pockets Ziva’s car keys and takes out his own. He's pretty sure all three of them are wearing smiles (all in different degrees of tiredness) and Tony doesn’t know how he got this lucky. He not only has two amazing partners but he also works with them, gets to spend close to every day with them. He thinks as he looks from Ziva’s sleep mused hair to Tim trying rub at his eyes that he doesn't care if he has drive out to Silver Springs after every case as long he’s with both of them and they’re all safe.


End file.
